This invention relates to a dental retractor.
Dental retractors have been used in dentistry for various purposes such as aiding in impression taking for crown and bridge prosthetics, intraoral photography, and fillings. They assist the operator by moving away the lips and cheeks of a subject temporarily. The currently available retractors, however, are not patient-friendly, are expensive to make and are not convenient to use. For example, one conventional retractor used in intraoral photography requires two pieces with each having a hook at one end. The two pieces are placed on the lips of the patient so as to curl around the corners of the patient's mouth and the patient is asked to pull on the two pieces sideways while the dentist takes the photo. Such method is an inconvenient way to take this particular photo and poses much apprehension to the patient. Further, the retractor is costly because two separate pulling pieces are required. Therefore, there is a need for an improved dental retractor which is patient-friendly, inexpensive to make and convenient to use.